Rev. Debbie Cato
Matthew
2:12-23
Fairfield Community Church
January 15, 2023
Almighty
God, by your Holy Spirit, light up your sacred words, we pray, that our minds
may be open to receive your Word, our hearts taught to love it, and our character
strengthened to obey it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Jesus the Refugee
This is
a hard passage. We just celebrated Christmas
and the romantic manager scene. We have
this image of this sweet baby Jesus in our heads. Yet this is an important passage. It is important that we know this part of the
story. This scripture is known as “The
Massacre of the Infants” or the “Slaughter of the Innocents.” It leaves nothing to the imagination. Herod is an evil man He kills the babies; all the children in and
around Bethlehem that were two years-old and younger, just to be sure every
child that could possibly be a threat to his reign; to his power was killed. It’s horrible.
In his commentary on Matthew, theologian N.T. Wright writes, “Jesus is born with a price on his head.”[1] “Matthew’s gospel is a baby who poses such a threat to the most powerful man around that he kills a whole village full of other babies to try to get rid of him. At the heart of the Christmas story in Luke, too, is a baby who, if only the Roman emperor knew it, will be Lord of the whole world. Within a generation his followers will be persecuted by the empire as a danger to good order. Whatever else you say about Jesus, from his birth onwards, people certainly found him a threat. He upset their power-games and suffered the usual fate of people who do that.”[2]
He’s
known as Herod the Great. He thought
nothing of killing members of his own family, including his own wife, when he
suspected them of scheming against him
When he was dying, he gave orders that the leading citizens of Jericho
should be slaughtered so the people would be weeping at his funeral. So, this
Herod would not bat an eyelid at the thought of killing lots of little babies
in case one of them should be regarded as a royal pretender. As his power had increased, so had his
paranoia – a not unfamiliar progression as dictators around the world have
shown from that day to this.[3]
N.T. Wright goes on to say, “The Gospel of Jesus was born in a land and time of trouble, of tension, of violence, and fear. Before Jesus had even learned to walk and talk, he was a homeless refugee with a price on his head. This is how God would set about liberating his people and bringing justice to the entire world. No point arriving in comfort when the whole world is in misery. No point having an easy life when the whole world suffers violence and injustice. If Jesus was to be Emmanuel – God-with-Us, he must be with us where the pain is.”[4]
Two dreams protect Jesus. The magi are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod and tell him where they found the Christ child. They listen and go back home following a different route, a longer more treacherous route. And then Joseph has a dream to take his young family to Egypt – to flee to a land that is completely foreign to them.
It is about 40 miles from Bethlehem to Egypt. If the young family were able to walk about 3 miles an hour, they would have walked for 12 hours to escape Bethlehem and the surrounding region and reach Egypt. They had traveled to Bethlehem to register for the census when Jesus was born there so we could assume that they had few belongings with them and so they had little to take with them to Egypt. Little to start their new life. They were poor to begin with. I wonder what they were thinking. I’m sure they wondered what their future would look like.
They don’t know the language, the culture, they have no place to live, and no job to earn a living. They are refugees fleeing a delirious ruler who wants to kill their baby. The trauma they have been through, the fear of fleeing their homeland in time before the soldiers find their infant child must have been terrifying. They must have been exhausted – physically and emotionally.
Once again, we don’t know any details. Were they welcomed when they crossed the border into Egypt? Did someone help them get settled? Find a home? A job? Learn the language? Get food and supplies?
This is a story familiar to so many people today. If we put aside our political opinions, people are fleeing political persecution and dangerous life conditions every day from countries to the south of us and countries overseas like Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa, to name a few. People who leave everything they have, everyone they know – their culture and homes and jobs and families to find safety. It’s impossible for us to imagine how horrendous their conditions that force them to leave all they know and flee to the unknown with hope for a better life. How impossible their life must be to take children on such dangerous journeys. The journey itself life threatening.
We are people of privilege. We do not live in danger. We do not have dictators or rulers wanting to kill us because we are a threat to their power. We do not live in a place where lawlessness reigns and drug cartels control our community. We do not live in a country where wars are ravaging our land and our lives. We do not live where it is so unsafe that it is better to travel a treacherous journey for miles and miles in hope of a better life for our families. We cannot imagine. We cannot understand.
But Jesus can. Jesus knows what this is like. At less than two years old, he was a homeless refugee. Once again, our Lord and Savior, the Messiah, born to save the world, God Himself, can relate to those who are persecuted and suffer the most. He can relate to the refugees because he too was one.
Mary and Joseph and Jesus must have had help acclimating to their life in Egypt. Joseph found work as a carpenter. They found a place to live. They must have learned the language so they could communicate with their new neighbors. They must have acclimated to the culture; made new friends. They lived there for three years before God told Joseph, through another dream that it was safe to return home. Most refugees can never return.
May we too, if we have the opportunity, welcome the refugees, knowing they are here because they had to come. May we understand their story and know that they are human beings that have hope for a better future and a safe place for their families to live because where they came from was not safe for them to stay. May we remember that the Lord we worship was once a refugee and may we praise and thank him that he understands the persecuted and wants us to do the same. Amen.
[1] Matthew for Everyone., Part I. Chapters 1-15. N.T. Wright.
John Knox Press. 2004. Page.14.
[2] Matthew for Everyone., Part I. Chapters 1-15. N.T. Wright.
John Knox Press. 2004. Page.14.
[3] Matthew for Everyone., Part I. Chapters 1-15. N.T. Wright.
John Knox Press. 2004. Page.14.
[4] Matthew for Everyone., Part I. Chapters 1-15. N.T. Wright.
John Knox Press. 2004. Page.14 - 15.
No comments:
Post a Comment